Three week update

Today Alexandra is three weeks old! Hard to believe just three short weeks ago I was pregnant and wondering when my sweet little baby would be joining us.

Things are going well, all things considered. I’m not going to lie – it has been exhausting with the boys home from school over winter break, and that is even with a lot of help from Jake and my parents. The popular new mom saying “sleep when the baby sleeps” makes a lot of sense in theory, but in practice is quite hard to implement with a third child. The boys are go go go all day long, and I’d love to catch a quick nap during the day, but it just isn’t happening even though Alex sleeps quite well during the day. Nighttime is a different story. 3-5 am seems to be party time and at all hours of the day and night she is a noisy sleeper and her strange grunts, squeaks and snorts keep this mama awake. With a third child, I have some perspective in that I know that she will sleep more at night EVENTUALLY and one day I will miss her newborn sounds.

Adjusting to life with three kids is taking some time. I’ve just now figured out how to manage during the day on my own with all three of them. It involves a lot of organization, even more patience and a bit of humour. Today was probably our best day so far. I managed to make, serve and clean up breakfast, lunch and dinner for all of us, keep the house in decent order, do a few loads of laundry and everyone was relatively happy. This happened without the boys watching TV all day (just one movie), so I feel good about that.

I remember when Dylan was born I was afraid to be alone with him for the first few weeks. If Jake had to go out, I would make my mom come over. It seems so funny now, because when Jake takes the boys out and I am alone with Alex, it feels like a vacation!

In terms of post partum exercise, I am quite anxious to get started again. I’ve gone for a few walks, done a Nike Training Club workout, and done a few planks and push ups here and there. I really miss spinning and running but will be waiting a bit to get back into both of those. I know it is important that I rest now and let my body heal from birth. Waiting a few more weeks won’t make a difference in the long run, but starting too early could lead to injury, and I want to avoid that. It is humbling that just over a year ago I could run a half marathon (that’s 21km!!) no problem, and now I’m not sure I could even run 1km continuously. I know that my body has been through a lot and giving birth is a huge physical accomplishment in itself, but I really miss my hard workouts!